Sounds like fun!

Hmm.. Labour want to get the Digital Economy Bill thrown at us, but then it wants everyone to have at least 2Mbps broadband by 2012 and 90% of us to have "superfast" 100Mbps broadband by 2017, and it's willing to risk a potentially unpopular telephone line tax to help pay for it.  Seems a bit pointless having fast internet without being able to use it..

Read more: http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/uk-political-parties-key-tech-policies-examined-680110#ixzz0kq9Ibitf

I'm incredibly ignorant about anything technological so I'm just ignoring that stuff because frankly, I don't really know much about it:P

The Tories have some policies!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8616777.stm

"Pledges include allowing people to set up their own schools and veto high council tax rises."

-Again I'm not really sure how people setting up their own schools will work. Who will pay for it? What is the point?
-Local councils won't be able to pay for basic services if people constantly veto council tax rises. I think local councils are often extremely inefficient but inefficiency needs to be dealt with by review and reform, not starving them of funding and inevitably witholding services from the people.

"The Tories' plan to block the bulk of Labour's planned 1% rise in National Insurance is in the manifesto"
-So how are they going to reduce the budget deficit that they have been banging on about?

"Tory plans to cut "wasteful" government spending by

"-Local councils won't be able to pay for basic services if people constantly veto council tax rises. I think local councils are often extremely inefficient but inefficiency needs to be dealt with by review and reform, not starving them of funding and inevitably witholding services from the people."

Usually that review ends with "we can keep paying for it, so why reform?"

""unaccountable police authorities would be replaced with a directly-elected official to set policing priorities, budgets and strategies."
-So we replace unaccountable but competent people with lay people who don't know what they are doing? This is a waste, how much will these elections cost? What will we really gain from it? Populism isn't a way to run a police force? Why are we modelling our police force on the USA, which has much worse crime rates than we do?"

Oi!

Apparently they aren't doing such a competent job that Tories can't complain about it.

I have not heard of any reviews or reports that any problems with policing or crime would be solved by having an elected official in charge. It is a gimmick which fits into the Conservative's 'power to the people' theme. It is a bad idea to allow politics to have anything to do with the police force. It will cost a lot to hold elections that no one will turn out for. And no one has said it is broke, so why are they trying to fix it?

My local council actually has a good reputation for efficiency and I pay lower council tax than people in neighbouring council regions, so I'm quite happy with them. Maybe councils should just be more co operative so that well performing ones like mine could help poorly performing ones do better.  No one likes paying taxes but they are a reality of life. The Conservative party are making popular but unrealistic promises on council tax. And I still don't understand how you can have a local referendum to refuse council tax rises, of course people would vote directly against a tax rise. But that doesn't mean it is the right thing to do.

Local councils are responsible for funding many different services, but it varies a little depending on the type of local authority: "Shire" council, unitary authority, borough council or metropolitan district.  Essentially though they provide things such as waste disposal, recycling, road maintainance and as joint boards fire services.  You also have things such as local education authorities which are funded through local councils.  This is in addition to gardening, "meals on wheels" for the elderly etc...

As for the question of proportional representation SD... In the last few years I've come to realise the first-past-the-post system is utter horse doo-doo. The UK doesn't have a democracy at all; just something which masquerades as a democracy.  I know I'll get strung up for this, but it is the same with the American system - it isn't a democracy in any way, shape or form! 

Even proportional representation isn't true democracy, but it would be a whole lot better than the rubbish we have now. 

""voluntary "national citizen's service" for 16-year-olds."
-Isn't this just the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme? Why is it necessary to have something else, but similar and government backed? Waste of money!"

Yes and no.  Hardly anyone knows anything about the DoE awards but it is slightly different I think.  In any case, they nicked my idea, but they screwed it up as there isn't a set of testicles amongst any of them. 

Right, better leave this here before I launch into a rant.  And that won't be good as I've got to do some work and then drink beer.

if he were alive he'd probably join the BNP!

he joined every other party

So the BNP now have Winston Churchil AND Marmite? X(

Council tax rises have been lower - on average - in Conservative councils than Labour or Liberal Democrat councils for the past decade.
I see no problem is setting a strict limit to how much councils can increase their charges each year.

One of the first things I would do is abolish allotments. Not only is this prime land that could be converted to parks for all, but we employ people to manage the allotments.
Most Police forces are oversized too and could be freshened up by reevaluating the number of police at each grade and how much time is spent completing paperwork. 'Retired' police can man the phones and the retirement age increased to 65.

Many supervisor roles can be axed and we need to be tough about sacking employees on the public sector gravy train with poor attendance records (i.e. too many "self-certified" sick days) and poor performance records. In many cases 1-2 competent hard-working people can do the job of 3 slackers!

Refuse collection has doubled in cost due to 'green' initiatives like recycling and the mandatory separation of waste into at least six (plastics / glass / paper / garden / tin cans / general household), which requires a minimum of two - and sometimes three - different collection crews!

tories are cunts

labour well is old and need change

lib dem  they seem good and okay, promising and the only real change any real party is offering tho they probably will not get in office

I don't know if Lib Dems would throw their lot in with Labour. One of the big things that the Lib Dems stand for and have always stood for is constitutional reform. They want a democratic Lords and proportional representation for the commons. If Labour don't win the popular vote (which frankly, they won't) then the Lib Dems would be totally selling out on one of their core principles to join a coalition to effectively keep Labour in power. Labour would never agree to proportional representation as a condition of forming a coalition because the first past the post system is massively skewed in Labour's favour.

Allotments are a force for good, they are usually on rubbish land that isn't much good for public parks e.g. right next to railway lines and allotments are usually relatively small so you won't be able to make a substantial public park out of most of them anyway. I have lived in three different places in the UK and have never thought that a lack of public space was a problem. In fact, right now I'm spoilt for choice as I am within walking distance of three different large parks. Allotments are good for people's health in that they keep people active and increase their intake of fresh vegetables. They are good for the environment as they reduce food miles. And I am highly sceptical about how much administration costs are associated with them. One council employee can be responsible for 100's of allotments without being overworked. Inefficient use of allotment space is a problem. Maybe we could have offenders on community service helping to dig them over or be more aggressive about taking allotments off people who don't use them? Either way, I don't really think allotments are going to be one of the big issues and I am astounded that I have spent time writing about them.

p.s. my waste collection is split into two. Unrecyclable and recyclable. Both are collected on the same day. The recyclable collection is pretty comprehensive and collects a hell of a lot of stuff. It clearly isn't that expensive because I  live in one of the cheapest council tax areas in the UK.